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Thales revolutionizes the travel experience of Madrid - Barajas thanks to facial recognition

Promoting the application of Digital Transformation in all areas, Thales is committed to research and development in biometric solutions to provide the citizen with a secure and reliable identity. For this reason, Thales Spain participates from today in the pilot test of AENA and Iberia in Terminal 4 for the installation and activation of machines with Artificial Intelligence (AI) located at the Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suárez airport that will facilitate the entire boarding process thanks to facial recognition without the need to show identity document and boarding pass

The passenger will be able to access in a quick and agile way to the all the airport dependencies through facial recognition, after registering through a mobile app or kiosk to access the boarding gates. Through a simple procedure, the user must download and install the application on their smartphone and proceed to register with their personal and flight data.

For this pilot project, the machines are installed and operational in the biometric gate in the security control and at the J40 boarding gate; a registration kiosk, which will be located next to the IBE 848 check-in counter; and the rest of the equipment will be at the gate of the Fast Track control and  at the J58 boarding gate, together with the enrollment kiosk, which will be located in front of the access of the filter of families.

"For Thales, this project is crucial since it combines all biometric technologies, document readers and facial recognition, with the needs of the AENA client. It is about implementing the digital transformation for the traveler, access through facial recognition to the all the dependencies of an airport, which entails quick and safe access to the Madrid-Barajas boarding gates. ”Miguel Mendoza, Thales Spain IBS Commercial Manager.

Thales contributes in an essential way to the deployment of facial recognition and integrates the data processed by AENA systems with the identification requirements for subsequent access to the aircraft.

Experience in the field of Biometrics

With more than 30 years of experience in biometrics, Thales has a complete list of technology products and services that allow governments and state agencies to ensure the safety of citizens. It also has a wide range of options for obtaining fingerprints of applicants that can be associated with large databases used for background checks. It also provides automated biometric identification systems for fingerprints and real-time facial identification.

Thales identification and verification solutions, supported by biometric expertise, allow the identity of individuals to be created and confirmed. Taking into account the continuous increase in the number of travelers, we help customs and public authorities, as well as airports to propose better experiences both in travel and at the borders thanks to our document readers, biometric systems and eGates (Automated Border Control Gates, or Automatic Border Control Gates).